2 February 2015

What not to do when hungry

Oops. As I sit down to write this post, I realize we are in Feb and I completely forgot to finish my 31 posts for January. Technically you were supposed to write everyday, but I cut myself some slack and decided if I make 31, I'll be good. Need a better plan next time.

So, I am one of those people who needs to eat every couple of hours. Regularly. I get cranky and sometimes dizzy If I don't follow an eating regimen - I joked that I have low blood glucose, till one day when I had to get myself checked at a random time, which happened to be when I had not had my usual 2 hr snack, and the technician called N to confirm if I had eaten since my blood glucose was quite low. Tada. Now I have biochemical proof for the behaviour.

Eating regularly is one thing, what complicates life is that I like eating well. Not as in, eating fried snacks and such, but eating a variety of foods. This has made me arrive at a list of things not to do when I am really hungry:

# 1 Don't open the fridge without a plan - One is apt to open the fridge like a cupboard and stare at the contents. If fridge is empty, then you might consider # 3 or # 4. Beware, is all I say. If like me your fridge is typically stuffed then do not pick out ingredients without knowing what to make. Try to go for the easy option, like masru anna (curd rice) or a fried egg with toast. But since hunger pangs short-circuit your ability to make quick rational decisions, this might not be obvious. Instead you might want to do # 2.

# 2 Do not read food blogs - You might skim over things in the fridge and decide that it might make something delicious, only you don't know what or how. So you pop over to your internet and start searching food blogs using the ingredients as a search term. But what happens is that since we eat with our eyes, as much with our tongue, you'll see perfect pictures of food items on blogs and keep clicking the next recipe to the next. Or discover that what you want to make requires 4 other essential ingredients that you don't have or that it will take 2 days of soaking and 1 day in the oven to be ready. Sum result - you are still hungry and now gastric juices are stimulated. Which might prompt you...

# 3 Do not read take out menus- Stuck to our fridge are menu cards from local take out joints. Unfortunately they are the chinese, north-indian and south-indian variety where every concievable taste is catered for. When hungry though, it will read like the prospectus of a juicy stock that will promise sky high returns in under 12 hours. Enticing, but your brain won't be able to get it's decision-making gears in order. Consequently, you are still hungry. Or worse, you order, and order all the wrong things, and you'll have loosies next.

# 4 Do not go to a grocery store - If you the stoic types, who can really go shopping to buy ingredients for your meal when you are hungry, then in my book you are superman. Or else, you might pop over to the supermarket thinking, surely, they will have more variety. Errm... that is the exact problem though. Having studied human psychology more in depth than academicians, marketing chaps know that to make a kill, they need to package it brightly and put it all together in one area, close to check out. Like me, you may think that if you don't take a cart or trolley in, you'll buy less. Remember that brain short-circuit? That's what is going to suddenly turn you into a many-armed goddess that allows you to carry chips packets, biscuit packets, all manner of kurkure types as every single snack ad that you have seen will play itself in your head or radio jingle will reverberate in your ear drum. Consequently, you'll finish two packets of chips to realize that now you are thirsty and that hunger just got worse. Salty, fried things are the worst when you are hungry.

Follow by Email

About Me

A bar called Shantam Pappum

A series of short stories revolving around Rukmini, the owner of "Shantam Pappum" - a watering hole exclusively for women, that serves only vegetarian food. Rukmini is a widow and her world is the bar, and her clients.